Tim Cook: I Felt 'Tremendous Responsibility' To Come Out Gay

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On Top Magazine Staff

|
September 17, 2015

Appearing on CBS' The Late Show,
Apple CEO Tim Cook explained that he decided to come out gay to help
struggling LGBT teens.

Cook, who took over the reigns at Apple
in 2011, quietly came out last October in an essay published in
Bloomberg Businessweek, where he stated that he considers
being gay “among the greatest gifts” God had given him.

Host Stephen Colbert asked his guest if
his coming out was an “upgrade” or “a feature that hadn't been
turned on.”

Cook answered that he “felt a
tremendous responsibility” to come out.

“It became so clear to me that kids
were getting bullied in school, kids were getting basically
discriminated against, kids were even being disclaimed by their own
parents, and that I needed to do something,” Cook said. “And
where I valued my privacy significantly, I felt that I was valuing it
too far above what I could do for other people. And so I wanted to
tell everyone my truth.”

He added that his sexuality was an open
secret, comparing it to “discovering something on your iPhone that
it's always done, but you didn't quite know it.” (The video is
embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)

Cook has been a vocal supporter of gay
rights, in particular laws that prohibit workplace discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity.